The big news of the week that we started with on MobileTechRoundup show #207 was HP's purchase of Palm. James, Kevin, and me each gave our thoughts on this purchase and I know I personally am very happy to see webOS continue. The Nokia N8 was also big news in the smartphone world this week and it looks like Nokia has not been resting on their worldwide smartphone lead either with a compelling device that I am sure to buy. T-Mobile lifts data caps with some acceptable speed throttling instead and Skyfire for Android 2 launches and becomes my default web browser.

The biggest news in the mobile world this week was obviously the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 and several devices so we had to spend some time during MobileTechRoundup show #185 talking about Windows Mobile again. We did go on to talk about the other hot news story of the further adoption of the Google Android operating system, including by Verizon Wireless. Kevin has been having some Google Sync for iPhone issues and also told us we should try out data roaming on the Palm Pre and HTC Hero.

There's a good bit of chatter today about the latest Palm Pre ad. In a nutshell, actress Tamara Hope, who oddly sort of resembles Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, goes all abstract about the Palm Pre.

Palm was the leader for managing your PIM data (calendar, contacts, tasks) and many people today still use Palm devices that are not phone-enabled just for these functions. Given that PIM was a strong suit of the Palm branding, I am quite surprised with some of the limiting functionality in the integrated PIM apps found on the Pre in WebOS. Palm has had quite some time to optimize their own integrated PIM suite and left out several parts that current Palm OS owners have come to rely on.

AdMob released their February 2009 report (PDF link) that gathers data from ads on more than 6,000 mobile web sites and 1,000 applications around the world. This data does not show sales information, which is tough to really understand because of the way companies count sales and the way data analysis companies count smartphones. Looking at the US smartphone figures, Apple has the lions share of traffic 50% in Febuary 2009 with RIM in second with 21%, Windows Mobile in third with 13%, Palm in fourth with 7% and Android in fifth with 5%.

The Palm Treo Pro appeared on the Sprint site back in January, but it was then pulled down and never was released. Sprint and Palm now posted an official announcement that the Palm Treo Pro will be released on Sprint on 15 March. The Sprint Palm Treo Pro will be available for US$199.99 after US$100 instant rebate and US$100 mail-in rebate with an Everything or $30/month or higher data plan and a 2-year contract. The unlocked Treo Pro is still priced at US$549.The BIG news though is that this Treo Pro will have Internet Explorer Mobile 6 loaded as well. Will existing Treo Pro owners get this updated browser?

My T-Mobile SIM card has been living in my T-Mobile G1 Android device now for a few weeks and I continue to use it for phone calls, email, and web surfing. I was pleased to read that CompanionLink Sofware now has a way for you to sync your PIM data (no email) between Outlook, Lotus Notes, Palm Desktop, Novell Groupwise, and other clients to your T-Mobile G1. CompanionLink for Google Android is available now for US$29.95 with a free 14-day trial.

Nokia just made their Sync on Ovi service available for those of you with S60 devices who want to sync you PIM data (calendar, contacts, tasks, etc.) to a server and have it backed up and secure. You also have the choice to use an Exchange, or hosted Exchange service, or a BlackBerry service for this functionality. I was reading Mobility Site and the words Franklin Covey caught my attention since I used these planners for years before discovering my first Palm Pilot. I am not sure how long Franklin Covey has been offering this server sync/backup solution, but they now have a free version that is limited to yourself and one team member.

Several student information system (SIS) vendors offer to sync data with a Palm Pilot or Windows Mobile PDA. This is a handy feature for teachers on field trips, assistant principals stalking the halls, etc.

I began my wireless mobile data usage with a Qwest Qualcomm mobile phone tethered to my Palm with a cable back almost ten years ago and then moved onto a national carrier as I outgrew Qwest. In 2004, Qwest partnered with Sprint to offer nationwide services. Back in May of this year Qwest announced it was dropping Sprint and switching to Verizon Wireless. Today, Qwest Wireless announced that they are now offering Verizon Wireless service to new residential and business customers. Qwest will soon be contacting existing customers to help with the changeover.

eWallet 6 is an essential tool for keeping your passwords and vital data secure and protected on your mobile devices, while also being readily accessible for your own use. In this day and age when everything seems to require a password and/or PIN it is getting to be almost impossible to remember them all unless you set them all to be the same, which is not a good idea in case one is compromised. The mobile version of eWallet 6 is compatible with Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices with a Windows PC companion product available too. You can easily create your secure data cards on your PC and sync the data across multiple devices. Ilium Software is also celebrating their 11th birthday with contests and major software discounts.

AT&T is starting to take over for T-Mobile in providing WiFi access at Starbucks and other locations so to kick off MobileTechRoundup show #131 James provided his thoughts on using another alternative solution, Boingo Wireless. I also used their Boingo Mobile service in Spain on my Nseries devices so I provided some thoughts on the service too. Kevin and I tested out the new Skype beta on my Nokia N95-3 before the show and it was impressive. Listen to also find out what would compel us to upgrade to the upcoming 3G iPhone and if any cohost plans to do so. Kevin brought up a freeware from Paul at MoDaCo.com that removes duplicate contacts and then James mentioned the Outlook duplicate remover he found years ago at a UK church website that is actually still providing the utility for free. We hear Palm is beta testing a new device on the Sprint network, but is it too little too late for them? We end by asking whether a hotspot or 3G data is the preferred service for the mobile user.

I was on a research vessel working offline last week when the iPhone SDK details were revealed by Steve Jobs and others at Apple, but that evening when I read all the news I was extremely happy to see Exchange ActiveSync support because my hosted Exchange service with 4Smartphone is what allows me to bounce between about 6 mobile phones and 2 or 3 notebooks in a given week without worrying about what PIM data is created and used on any of them. However, after reading more about the iPhone SDK and calming down a bit after seeing the amazing game possibilities and other 3rd party applications the news of lack of multi-tasking took me back to 1999 and thoughts of the Palm OS.

Back in October I had the chance to check out the Palm Centro for Sprint and thought it was a very good device for the new smartphone buyer. Since that time I know several people that have purchased one and love the device. AT&T and Palm today announced the availability of the Palm Centro from AT&T. The device has the same design and specifications as the Sprint Palm Centro, but unfortunately lacks a 3G radio. It is a quad-band GSM device with support for the EDGE data network. The first model available is the Glacier white model with green highlights with an Obsidian black model becoming available in about a month. The device is available today starting at US$99.99 with 2-year service agreement and for those looking to move from a feature phone to a smartphone I think this is a decent choice available at a good price.

I started using PDAs with the Pilot 1000 back in 1997 and there are still a few Palm OS applications that I find very useful that are not found in Windows Mobile or Symbian. One example of a program I use for my marine salvage work is Tide Tool that gives me tidal data around the world in both table and graphical formats. I was very pleased to read today on the StyleTap blog that StyleTap CrossPlatform for Symbian OS will be released in early 2008. I have tried StyleTap on Windows Mobile devices and it works brilliantly with Palm OS applications.

Remember the low-powered Palm PDAs that were so popular and fashionable around the late nineties till 2004? Most of us have moved on to more powerful devices running on Windows Mobile and Symbian, but the original Palm OS PDAs are now used in Africa as data entry devices for healthcare.

I travel quite a bit and for people like us that rely on the data stored on their handhelds having a good backup is critical. I discovered how valuable a hosted Exchange service can be and rarely sync directly to a computer anymore. The new beta of Palm Backup does even more than a hosted Exchange service can do in terms of backing up your data. Palm Backup saves a copy of your contacts, calendar, memo, tasks, browser bookmarks, speed dials, and call logs to a secure server from anywhere you have wireless coverage. You can setup a backup schedule or perform manual backups when you want. You should still perform regular backups to a storage card for your applications and other files, but this is a great way to know your vital data is backed up. The service is available from Palm for free for now, but there will be a fee structure when the service rolls out of beta. The Palm Backup service works with the Treo 700p, Treo 680, and Treo 650 Palm OS based smartphones.